Chunky Start. Your time is now!

"Ah yes, right to the root of the matter. A-hem. Well, I'm sorry to say that Chelsea has quite a history of outstanding medical complications she has, as of yet not seemed to clear up. As a long time practitioner of the natural medicines, it is my professional opinion that many of these complications contributed in one factor or another to the fainting spell she incurred today. She was already beginning to display the warning symptoms when I met her some time ago. It was only a few weeks after I'd moved in here at Lauden au Ris, and I was still getting used to life and things here. She works in the Human Resources division at Rimeria Heavy Industries, and I was impressed with her professional courtesy. Chelsea had already gone through a similar experience, and was happy to help me with settling in and filling out all the necessary paperwork.
Over the course of months I performed several diagnostic rituals, with her consent. Through them I discovered she has mild cases of hyperuricemia, trichromatic humoral imbalance, varicositus maximus, and..." She leans close and whispers, "...Nocturnal tumescent lipochondriac syndrome."
Gersha blushes as she straights up. "I'm sorry, I don't think she would have wanted me to say that out loud, but there you have it. I also discovered she has a high potential to develop pulmonary arthritis and, goodness, osteoporosis."
She shivers at the mention of the dreadful disease and notes the dissatisfaction on Mallory's face.
"Yes, I would be very concerned about that too. As her dearest friend, I urged her to include extra strength calcium supplements in her diet and incorporate more jogging sessions into her daily exercise regimen to reduce the risk. But every time we gathered with our friends to check up on her, she would reluctantly admit that she had not yet followed our suggestions. Too busy with work, she said, or tired from tending to her family. Rather foolish if I may say so. How can a woman take care of her husband and three children if she can't even care for her own body? She really does not think these things through." Gersha makes an imploring gesture.
"It was only a matter of time then, before her careless lifestyle caught up to her. I had just gotten home and was working on a prototype, that means proof of concept, for a revolutionary new garment design. Oh, I must tell you about that later. Chelsea made a surprise visit for tea and biscuits, and I was happy to host her. Now, the first thing I noticed was her voice. It sounded scratchy and muffled from the humoral imbalance. She thought her voice sounded perfectly normal though, the poor thing, and was convinced that the hallucinations she was having were real. When she came in her face was looking unusually pale, and the varicositus was acting up. I knew the special brand of Vosulil tea I had bought could make her feel better, so I boiled up a batch. She only took a single sip of it though, before expressing the desire to leave! Quite ungrateful if you ask me, but what are friends for if not to accompany each other through the lowest moments? I insisted she stay to finish her treatment, but she then informed me she was moving her entire family back under the oppressive grip of her aging father. I could tell her conditions were beginning to affect her judgment, but when I tried to convince her of this, she up and shoved me! Shoved me to the floor and stormed out!"
Gersha grumbles. "That's twice in one day I've been violently assaulted, can you believe it? I hope you are making note of that at least, nobody should have to go through the victimization and indignation I did today. Utterly ridiculous I tell you."
"I was very concerned for her health at that point, so I followed her. But I'm afraid I was too late; the varicositus maximus present in her ankle and clavicle's phalangeal apparatus was at that moment swelling to an unnatural size. A combined buildup of uricity and NTLS byproduct cut off the humoral flow to her thinkpan, and you know what that means."

"I see," Mallory nodded knowingly, "so you had a verbal disagreement over Chelsea's personal habits, and her decision to move back with her parents?"

"No, I was talking about Chelsea's health complications, not her personal habits, although we could discuss those too if you'd like. It could hardly be called a decision at all, as she was experiencing hallucinations under the effect of hyperuricemia. It made her turn violent, for Pete's sake!"

"Right, right, right," Mallory repeatedly nods, "now if you'll sign off on this you're free to go."

Its a a full sheet and back of paper with various quotes that Gersha just said written down, with a statement at the bottom affirming that these statements were given by Gersha.

For some reason the quotes, although exactly her words, seemed oddly incriminating.

One such line reads, "nobody should have to go through the victimization and indignation I did today," with a small break and "so I followed her" in the line under it.

Gersha sighs. "No no no, this is not right at all. You left out so many important details. Clearly your listening skills aren't any better than Hillary's. Rather a shame considering your impressive physical prowess. Just like a man, all muscle but no memory. Look, it's alright to admit your memory is a bit faulty. I'll write down the rest of my statement myself."

"No, no, no, I'm not asking you if this was the full statement, only if you said these things." Mallory wags one finger. "And I hope you remember that you did if your memory is so good."

"Yes, I do remember, and this is not what I said," Gersha indicates the entire line with the small break. "Or this, or this. There's not even one mention of my shopping list! No offense, but your spelling is quite atrocious as well. But don't worry, it's not too much trouble for me to write it down. I'm used to it as a secretary." Gersha starts writing down her full statement on her stationary paper so that the police may have an accurate and correctly spelled account.

"Fine," Mallory shrugs, "if you wish. Just sign off at the bottom after you're done."

Gersha transcribes her statement in full, emphasizing her complaints of violence and adding in a vivid account of her shopping spree and a few tantalizingly brief details about The Huggie. She writes another copy for her own records and signs both as "Shane"- Hun?
"Wait, no, that's not my name, why did I do that?" Gersha wonders. She crosses them out and signs her actual name, gives one copy to Mallory and goes to talk to the shady looking man.

"Ullo there sir, my name is Ms. Gersha Folsom, I'm an employee at RHI. Who might you be?"

Mallory spends time underlining portions of Gersha's testimony as Gersha leaves to speak with the shady looking man.

"The name's Dick, they call me Big Dick. I sell herbal medicine." "Dick" grins widely as he describes his profession. The officer directly opposite of "Dick" rolls her eyes directly into the back of her head.

"Madame, please refrain from distracting Mr. Wanker from his task at hand. He takes long enough already."
--
@Kelvin

The line is pretty jam packed, but Borack waits at the end anyways. He and Michell stand by a middle aged couple and their teenage son, and soon are joined by a single young male.

"Mr. Senator, are we not going to look for more people?" Thomas asks, seeing Borack get in line for the train.

--
@nina

Eryn arrives with Linda to the train station empty handed. She spots that the senator and his wife are standing towards the end of the monstrous queue.

"Do you have any specific locations in mind that may be in dire need of help? If not, I'm sure that the Panalese military are already helping civilians all over the town by now. Since we don't know their course of action in helping their civilians, we may be more of a hindrance than a help at this point."

"Oh my goodness, are you alright madam officer? I don't think eyes are supposed to be able to go there."
She smiles at Mr. Wanker. "What a happy coincidence! I've done a good deal of work with herbal medicines myself. Would you happen to have time for a little chat about them after you've finished your police business?"

@kelvin
"The senator's right Dylan, there's not much we can do." Elina, who has been tagging along all this time, seems to be relieved at Obama's suggestion.

"But... oh alright, if you all think so then I guess there isn't much more to say," Thomas is clearly crestfallen. "I guess we will go back to RHI and retrieve our belongings then."

The group of scientists leave with their trucks.

--
@wayne

"Well I sure do," Dick Wanker is grinning even wider now, "why I even got some of that rare..."

"Please do not attempt to sell your contraband here, Mr. Wanker."
The officer who did the practically impossible eye roll cuts Dick off promptly.
"We can only turn a blind eye if you allow us to. Could you please stop encouraging Wanker here, and leave madam?"

Seeing how Thomas is crestfallen, Michell slaps the doctor across the back
"Don't be so down, Doctor. We helped a lot of people today. We wouldn't have been able to do so much without you and your team"

Borack holds out his hand for Thomas to shake
"Yes, we are very grateful for the assistance of you and your team."

Joe goes around shaking the hands of all the scientists.
"Where was that other girl that helped us out."
Joe looks for Eryn and attempts to shake her hand if he sees her.

"Oh all right." Disappointed that she didn't get to talk shop, Gersha heads back home, cleans up, and brings her documents and the prototype to the patent office to patent The Huggie.

As she shakes Joe's hand she comments. "You guy's might wanna be careful if you head east, I'm not sure whats going on, but there are large columns of fire erupting over there." After giving the warning she asks one of the scientists if she can get a ride back to RHI.

Joe puts on a serious expression.
"Could you tell us more about what's going on in the east?"

ooc: Phone corrected to west instead of east for some reason.

ic: She shrugs. "Don't really know how to explain it, I never saw anything like it back home, just large clouds of dust, people running away, and columns of fire erupting."

Borack turns to Thomas
"Do you have any idea what the lady might be describing, Doctor? It sounds like people may be in need of help towards the east."

Borack manages to get Thomas's attention before he leaves.

"Columns of fire? But there's no geothermal vents or volcanoes anywhere near here..." Thomas looks confused.

"No, I think that is the sign of a battle..." murmured Elina unsure, "how many people were there running away?"

She shrugs. "I couldn't really get an accurate count of people, just saw several groups running away through my scope."

"Still quite worrisome," Elina murmurs, "maybe we should leave by road instead of by train Dylan."

"We can't abandon the Senator here Elina," Thomas shakes his head, "he isn't our Senator, but he is an important part of our republic."

"Take the road, don't worry about us. We can use the Codillac and take the roads as well, should we so desire. I just want to make sure everyone else can evacuate safely as well."

@kelvin & nina

The scientists leave in their trucks, while the line infront of the train station inches forward. Pretty soon night falls, but Borack and Eryn have not gotten anywhere near the train platform.

--
@wayne

Gersha heads out on A divergent path.

Borack checks his surroundings to see if the fighting has advanced towards the station.

Borack only hears the occasional "firecracker" in the distance, he should be safe at least temporarily.

Borack thinks to the narrator that he isn't so much as concerned about himself as he is about the others.
Borack simply waits in line until anything notable happens.

What was originally a line becomes something of a blotch as people gradually get tired of standing around and start waiting on the ground.

Borack and company start to feel the strain too, as their feet start falling asleep, and their minds are numb from staying awake for so long.

"Dear, if you want to rest, I can lend you my arms," says Michell.

Eryn, use to staying in one place for a while thanks to her time as a hunter for her tribe, simply stands around bored out of her mind, alternating between keeping an eye on the group and and running past hunting scenarios through her mind to keep it sharp and ready.

"Thank you for the offer, dear. However, we should stay standing so that the people might feel safe after seeing our perseverance."

Michell retracts her gorgeously super buff arms and crosses them
"Alright, boi. I see how it is"

Bidden alternates between looking at the obamas and awkwardly looking away. It is really obvious that he's the third wheel in this relationship, huh.

The night grows old, and those who await their turn for the trains can almost feel every second that ticks by, and yet nobody dares shut their eyes in fear of missing their opportunity.

After what feels like eons, it is finally Borack's turn. He shakes away the sleepiness and checks his pocket watch. It's 3'o clock already(days have 12 hours, with 1:00 approximately coinciding with 1:00 AM in our world).

There's two choices of train lines, one going east into the capital city of neutral country of Vall, a major tourism site in times of peace, and another going west towards the Panalis heartland. Also, it does not look like there would not be enough space to have the Codillac transported, even the cargo holds of the trains are crammed full of what are now refugees, so it will need to be abandoned if Borack wishes to escape by rail.

Borack turns to his compatriots
"Where do you all think we should go? I believe we should head to the Panalis heartland. Maybe there we can figure out what exactly is going on here and put an end to this mindless violence."

Borack motions to Bidden
"Joe, can I ask you to drive the Codillac with any stragglers that can't fit on the train and follow the train? It'll be useful to have the vehicle at our disposal."

Bidden's face lights up
"OH BOI, I get to drive the Codillac! Wow!"

Michell laughs
"Oh come on Joe. You always could've driven it if you'd wanted to. You just had to ask."

Eryn shrugs. " If your asking me I'll leave it up to you. You know the continent better than I do, I haven't been out of the city since I moved here, so I have no idea where or what any of the places you mentioned are." Saying her piece she goes back to watching the crowds for anything suspicious.

Borack, Michell and Eryn pile onto the westbound train, paying the fare of a seat in the steerage, while Bidden fires up the Codillac for a head start on the road. The train fills up quickly with people, and pulls away from the station at a quarter past 3.

While Eyrn maintains her vigil in the standing room only compartment, Borack gradually feels sleep overtake his consciousness, the motion of the train like a cradle that rocks him back and forth.

Approximately an hour passes before the unthinkable happens.

BOOM!

A deafening explosion rocks the Eryn and Borack's eardrums as the train is passing over a river way, and those by the window can see that the bridge has been snapped in half directly in the middle along with the train itself. Screams of dread and confusion erupt from the passengers around, waking up those who had the fortune of falling asleep.

The train compartment that Eryn and Borack is in is towards the rear of the train, and wasn't directly affected by the explosion, although they can feel that the train is slowly lurching forward and sliding towards the newly formed chasm in the bridge...

Michell slaps Borack on the head.
"Wake up foo, wutchu doin in this situation bein a bum?"

Borack immediately gets up and announces the passengers [Aura of Greatness]
"Everybody, proceed in an orderly fashion towards the back exit of the train"

Borack turns to Michell
"I guess this is where those experimental blasters might come in handy. Lets meld the train to the tracks to prevent the the train and its passengers from falling into the chasm."

Michell nods and the couple attempt to quickly (while not running so as to not cause panic) exit the train and get to work, loading in fire and ice ammo into their blasters in an alternating fashion to then firing them at the edges of the train on both sides.

Using his extraordinary leadership powers, Borack manages to calm the people in his car just enough so that mass panic doesn't break out. Still it does not seem that exiting in an orderly fashion in the back will work out very well as there are too many people, and from what it feels like, too little time.

Although these train cars are slightly outdated, perhaps they may be modernized with a few new emergency exits in the windows?

Eryn, slightly disorientated from the blast, takes a moment to get her barrings. Once she calms down she heads out the front of the car and to the connector of the two cars to get a look at it.

After pushing through a veritable horde of people, Eryn manages to open the door to the next car. The connector from the car Eryn is on to the car in front is still coupled together, and Eryn has no knowledge of how to release the connector as a train mechanic would.

Eryn is looking to see how well shielded the connector is, if it is not shielded or fairly weak she get her rifle ready to shoot it, placing the muzzle directly against the connector.

The connector is just a normal metal connector, evidently the creators did not expect industrial sabotage at the level Eryn was about to undertake.

Eryn levels the muzzle of her prototype against the connector and produces a stream of pure energy that essentially saws through the connector. The experience leaves her significantly drained and with a throbbing headache, but the weakest point of the connector is cleanly melted off, like with a plasma cutter. Since the breaks have been engaged, Borack and Eryn's train car stops lurching forward without the added weight of the cars in front.

The part of the train that was decoupled from Eryn's car begins to accelerate faster towards the chasm.

From Borack's point of view, it seems as if the front door to the train suddenly opened, and then there was a bright flash followed by a high pitched whistling sound.

Borack and Michell wince at the sudden exposure to the intense and loud sound. Borack realizes that whatever's happening may distract people from quickly exiting the car or cause people to panic.
[Aura of Greatness] "Remain calm, everyone. It seems that the front of the train is now open. Those closer to that end, try to funnel out that way so that everyone can get out faster."

Seeing as Borack and Michell can't seem to get out of the train particularly fast, they decide to meld the train wheels to the tracks through the windows.

Borack and Michell stick their head out of the window, attempting to aim at the train wheels, but the wheels are actually protected by a metallic side skirt. In addition the angle is so sheer that Borack won't be able to aim at the wheels without hanging out the window by the feet.

However, in looking outside, they have noticed that they have stopped moving.

Because the train cars in front have actually been decoupled, there is enough space between cars to leap out onto the tracks. Eryn is the first one to do so, and the train car clears with remarkable speed.

Michell and Borack look at each other. Borack puts on an somewhat angry and somewhat sad expression. Seeing this Michell puts one finger to her lips for just a second, as though shushing Borack. The two then continue to proceed towards the back exit of the train as they were before.

Borack insists on exiting through the back, as if to avoid some terrible tragedy that had just befallen. It takes a while longer as not only the back exit is several train cars away, but there is now a new flow of traffic to the front.

After Borack finally manages to exit, he sees the thankful sight of the Codillac pulled up next to the tracks. Bidden hurries towards Borack when he sees him. After a tearful reunion, Bidden shows Borack the companion that he had befriended.

Why if it isn't the famous comedian Chill Bosby.

"Oh hey, if it isn't my old friend Chill! We need to catch up, my brother; however right now, we need to find a town or safe location where these citizens might find refuge. After that, we're going to take the Codillac to Panalis so we might be able to figure out what's going on here. Would you like to join us?"

"Borack! You don't know how glad I am to see a familiar face! My family and I was on vacation in Lauden when it was suddenly attacked. Thankfully Joe was there to whisk us away." Chill goes in and shakes Borack's hand while giving him a brotherly hug.

"Why can't we just all live in peace? Anyways it seems that the bridge is out, so I don't know where to go from here. I trust you, though, so I'll just follow you were you go."

"Alright then. It's good to have you with us. Comic relief can do much good for people in these dark times. Do you know any areas around here that might be safe? or at least places to avoid?"

Borack Michell and Bidden look around for any prospective safe zones.

Ooc: well so much for jumping to the next car to uncouple that one, guess I'll go kiritsugu and say I judged the lives on a scale or something. At work atm, I'll post something a little later.

Borack and Bidden take out the handy dandy map from the Codillac, puting a large X on the bridge with a pen, Borack can see that they can backtrack only a little bit and head north for another bridge closer to the coastline, or go off road and south into the mountains.

Eryn, seeing the error in what she had just done, sprints as fast as humanly possible towards the edge of the crumpling bridge. She performs the same treatment she had done to her own train car on the furthest train car that is not in immediate danger of toppling off the bridge. Three train cars instantly tumble off into the raging waters below, having lost the last bit of traction that was holding them back, while five more train cars full of people are saved.

Eryn feels the intense need to lie down somewhere.

Eryn, disappointed she couldn't do more, hobbles over to the car she came from her rifle as a crutch, all the while wondering where she got that boost of energy to preform that feet.